Am I the only one who finds a good thunderstorm relaxing?
I sit out on the porch and just watch (provided the lightning doesn’t get too close) and it is so relaxing.
41-45, M
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swirlie · 31-35, F
I study Meteorology as a hobby. Lightning itself is nothing more than a discharge of static electricity that was formed as a result of ice crystals constantly colliding with each other inside a towering cumulonimbus cloud (thunderstorm).
When enough static electricity is built up inside that towering cloud, it will discharge in the form of a lighting strike. The problem is, that static charge will often strike as a lightning bolt ⚡.. as much as 20 miles away from the storm itself, which means if you can hear thunder, it is already too close to you.
Lightning also travels through the ground as easy as it's seen traveling through the air. If you see lightning hit the ground in the middle of a farm field and there's no apparent damage, that entire field will remain energized with extremely high voltage from the lightning strike for up to 30 minutes AFTER that lightning strike hit the ground or hit a tree!
What this means is, if you're a farmer and you walk into that field to open a metal gate to let your cows come back to the barn, you and the cows are safe as long as you don't touch each other.
But as soon as you put your hand on the metal gate to open the fence for the cows to pass through, the stored high voltage in the ground from that lightning strike will immediately discharge between you and the metal gate, which of course is usually fatal and WILL occur up to 30 minutes after the lightning strike.
Just because lightning hits the ground not far from where you're sitting on your porch, doesn't mean the ground around you is safe to walk on. Whatever you do, if you're in the vicinity of a lightning strike, don't stand on the ground and touch anything metallic like a car, a fence or a flag pole.
When enough static electricity is built up inside that towering cloud, it will discharge in the form of a lighting strike. The problem is, that static charge will often strike as a lightning bolt ⚡.. as much as 20 miles away from the storm itself, which means if you can hear thunder, it is already too close to you.
Lightning also travels through the ground as easy as it's seen traveling through the air. If you see lightning hit the ground in the middle of a farm field and there's no apparent damage, that entire field will remain energized with extremely high voltage from the lightning strike for up to 30 minutes AFTER that lightning strike hit the ground or hit a tree!
What this means is, if you're a farmer and you walk into that field to open a metal gate to let your cows come back to the barn, you and the cows are safe as long as you don't touch each other.
But as soon as you put your hand on the metal gate to open the fence for the cows to pass through, the stored high voltage in the ground from that lightning strike will immediately discharge between you and the metal gate, which of course is usually fatal and WILL occur up to 30 minutes after the lightning strike.
Just because lightning hits the ground not far from where you're sitting on your porch, doesn't mean the ground around you is safe to walk on. Whatever you do, if you're in the vicinity of a lightning strike, don't stand on the ground and touch anything metallic like a car, a fence or a flag pole.
booinflipflops2 · 41-45, M
@swirlie Thanks for the heads up about the possibility of the fields being hot for up to 30 minutes after a strike! Never heard that before!
